Dying Light Bad Blood Preview

Dying Light Bad Blood, the battle royale spin-off of Dying Light arrived at a time where players were getting pretty sick and tired of games jumping on the battle royale bandwagon and sadly it was brushed off by many. But I think it’s unfair to instantly dismiss Bad Blood. Sure, the timing couldn’t have been worse, plus many Dying Light fans are looking forward to Dying Light 2. But I’d definitely recommend players give this a try.

Dying Light Bad Blood is a weird combination of multiplayer PvE with PvP elements. Unlike a “traditional” battle royale games, players aren’t racing to find high powered weapons in order to crush their opponent’s skulls and being the last alive. Instead, they’re seeking out and collecting samples from Hives which are being protected by some of Dying Light’s more famed undead enemies.

Sure, you can spend your time seeking out other players to bludgeon, but it actually won’t work out very well as players actually collecting samples and leveling up will be more powerful than you anyway, and this is where I think Bad Blood actually shines. Players are rewarded for completing their objective – collecting samples – rather than finding high powered weapons and murdering other players.

From my time with Dying Light Bad Blood I only really came across another player one or two times during the main gameplay. The only time I actively sought out another player was when they’d collected enough samples for extraction and we were essentially told to hunt them down. Plus, being that hunted player was way more thrilling than any game of PUBG or Fortnite.

The game’s main gameplay loop varies a lot too. From where you spawn you’ll often find that you’re surrounded by hives, but some of them may be Big Hive’s protected by Goons or even Demolishers. So you’ll need to seek out Small to Medium hives, to begin with – at least after you’ve found a weapon, that is.

Now, I’ve played my fair share of Battle Royale games that have been shoehorned into other games, Realm Royale, Battlerite Royale, and even Call of Duty: Black Ops 4‘s Blackout comes to mind, and while they all have elements of their base game within, none of them felt quite as natural as Dying Light Bad Blood. There are aspects of Dying Light throughout Bad Blood, from the parkour to even minor weapon crafting. Plus, the undead still poses a pretty mean threat.

That being said, Dying Light Bad Blood could have almost been an extra mode added into Dying Light itself rather than a spin-off title. There’s nothing overly unique which warrants it being its own game other than the fact that it saves players purchasing the base game but even then, saving £5 on Bad Blood seems more like a con than a pro as players miss out on what is a pretty fantastic game in Dying Light.

Unfortunately, due to players brushing off Dying Light Bad Blood as just another Battle Royale spin-off the game is cursed with a distinct lack of players. During my time with the game I found myself in games with all the same players, and even then lobbies weren’t full with one game having no more than 6 other players. Fair play to Techland, they’ve made it so that games launch with a very minimal number of players, but at the same time due to how easy it is to meet your match against the game’s enemy AI, I found myself pretty much winning by default once other players had died.

Dying Light Bad Blood has the potential to actually be a really really enjoyable game, even more so if it were a game mode within Dying Light, however spinning it off into a standalone game feels like a risk that hasn’t provided too much of a reward. Much like when I tried to walk a Goon to one side of an area so that I could sneak by and collect a Big Hive sample. It was a risk which ultimately ended up with getting bonked on the head with a bit of concrete clad rebar.

It may also be worth noting that the game currently has no duos or team option, which has resulted in some players pairing up, which to begin with isn’t a huge issue until it comes to extraction. There’s nothing quite like being faced against two teaming players defending the extraction zone unfairly.

As I’ve said, Dying Light Bad Blood at its core is a really great game and I would definitely recommend it. However, I can’t shake the feeling that it’d make a better mode within Dying Light itself than a £15 standalone title. Fans of the first game have stood by Techland and have of course been rewarded not only with The Following expansion, but also the various add-ons and free DLC that’s been added over the past three years – so it seems to me a little odd that this didn’t come as a free update.

I digress. Would I recommend Dying Light Bad Blood as it is? Yes, but with some caveats. There are currently only a few dedicated players. The game is lacking any team mode which means players do team up in the core game mode. I would perhaps consider revisiting the game after a couple more months of development.